In Italy for Love is coming!

I’ve been on holiday for ten days in the beautiful location of book ten (eek, how are we at book ten??) but in the meantime, the cover for book nine has been launched by my publisher!

An October release date is a strange beast, because books tend to need a few months’ run-up before they hit good sales, so it’s a bit late for Christmas, but it’s coming out in the middle of all the other Christmas books, so I’m always at a bit of a loss about how the manage that. This time I’ve gone for AUTUMN, which is a very beautiful season in the place where this book is set, in north-eastern Italy. But of course I’m hoping readers will pick this up at any time of year as it certainly can be read at any time of year.

I hope you all enjoy meeting Jules and Alex, listening to Alex’s accordion, getting to know everyone at the Due Pini organic farm and of course going on long walks with Arco the dog (while he avoids Attila the cat!)

Julia Volpe’s Italian dream has turned into a nightmare.

Still living with her ex, Luca, a year after they’ve broken up, desperate to sell the dilapidated B&B that was meant to be their future, Jules knows she needs to leave. There are just two problems. Her passport has expired and she’s broke.

Not quite ready to ask her parents for help – at the ripe old age of twenty-seven – Jules decides to head as far away from Luca as she can to work on an olive farm until she has enough money to pay for her passport and a ticket back home.

Jules has sworn off love, but she hadn’t bargained on the beauty of Cividale del Friuli, the ancient Italian town on the banks of the gloriously blue Natisone river. As the community of farmers, neighbours and locals generously welcome her into their lives, Jules can feel her defences crumbling. But it’s when she meets Alex, broodingly handsome yet charmingly gallant, that Jules truly knows she’s in trouble. Because Alex has sworn off love too, and his reasons run deep enough for him to keep his word just as Jules is starting to reconsider her resistance to romance.

So where am I on holiday?? It’s a perfect spot for me. Today we started the day at 65m above sea level, right by the lake, but we hiked from 1800m up to 2130m to beat the heat! A big hint is: Italy’s largest lake!